AN ANALYSIS OF THE EDUCATION AND TRAINING NEEDS OF CIVIL ENGINEERS FOR ORGANIZATIONAL MANAGERS

The Problem. The problem was to determine the perceived educational and training needs of the professional civil engineer to improve individual capability in leadership and organizational management roles in the present day society. The responsibility of the civil engineer in society and the organization when innovations, designs and new discoveries may cause, or require, many changes in individual attitudes and life styles was of concern.;The importance of the study derives from the specificity of training needed to tailor the educational process to the needs of both employer and employee. The training has become more complex with changes in laws, environment, social values and engineering sophistication. This research was considered significant in providing more insight into changing college educational and organizational training needs of the civil engineer as an organizational manager.;Method. All data were secured from a questionnaire provided to graduate civil engineers registered as "professional engineers" qualified to practice engineering in the State of Washington. Part I of the questionnaire was designed to obtain demographic information for comparisons and correlations of perceived training and educational needs by age and by supervisory and management experiences. Part II of the questionnaire provided responses to questions pertaining to training and education.;Hypotheses were as follows: (1) Civil engineers, as they progress through the patterns of postgraduate career development, will perceive the need to change curricula courses and course content, from technical to a more humanities oriented content in the college undergraduate civil engineer curriculum. (2) Civil engineers, as they progress through the patterns of postgraduate career development, will perceive the need for more undergraduate education in management courses to become more skillful in the management of an organization. (3) Civil engineers, as they progress through the patterns of postgraduate career development, will perceive the need for more organizational management training. (4) Civil engineers, as they progress through the patterns of postgraduate career development, will perceive the need to get more organizational management training at their own expense.;The main objective of the study was to determine if the college education and organizational training of civil engineers in organizational management was considered adequate to facilitate effective job performance.;Four subject groups were formed on the basis of age, facilitating analysis of response as the engineers progressed in their career.;Differences between the mean and the median for the total sample group reflected a mean of 44.6 years and a median of 44.3 years. Age range was 27-66 years.;Results. Analysis of data resulted in statistically significant determinations between the various groups. From these determinations the four hypotheses were significantly supported. It indicated that as civil engineers progressed in postgraduate careers, they perceived the need for: a change in the college civil engineer curriculum; more college education in management courses; more management training; and some management training at their own expense.;From these results four main conclusions were drawn. These were: the civil engineer profession should examine the college engineering curricula to determine and recommend changes that would provide more management training; organizational training should be reviewed for determination of improved training techniques; additional research should be done to improve "people" management through education and organizational management training for civil engineers; and management should be considered a professional career field for college undergraduate education to complement other professional endeavors of civil engineering.